Pandora's box
by LD100
Summary: There's some dangerous virus in the lab.
1. Chapter 1

A man came into the big hall of LVPD building. He looked around, confused and sweating, like he didn't know what to do next. He held his head with one hand and leaned against the dark-marble wall. The girl from reception noticed this man and came to him.

"Can I help you?" she asked. Suddenly she saw that he's sweaty and gasping for air.

"Are you ok? Should I call an ambulance? Sir?...Can you hear me?" she shook him lightly and he fell to her feet. Now she could see what's wrong. The man had big dark red spot on his shirt. Blood, a lot of blood. God... she thought and stared on the lifeless person in shock. A young woman opposite her noticed them. Her eyes widened and her scream froze everyone's blood.

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In a few minutes, whole building knew about it. The unknown man was, unfortunately, dead. Everyone, including the young receptionist was rushed out of hall. The body was checked by doctor Robbins himself and behind him nervously stood the sheriff. Grissom stopped in the door frame, smiled a little and came to them.

"What's different with this body, that you wanted directly us?" Grissom asked the sheriff.

"It's here. Dead body in the police building is a big trouble and there are plenty of reporters outside, who wanna know what happened."

"I can tell you that," said doctor Robbins. "He was murdered. Stabbed into the chest. He's got no ID." He waved on assistants to take the body to the morgue and left.

"Doctor?" the sheriff started

"I know. Priority case." Robbins interrupted and disappeared out of the room .

Grissom turned away from sheriff without a word and started to process the scene. The sheriff thought that he really can't do nothing more to hurry the investigation and left, too.

Grissom was taking photos of the hall. Few minutes later he heard steps and someone snooze. He turned around and saw Sara standing near the door. Her red eyes were hidden behind sunglasses and she was holding a handkerchief.

"You ok?" he asked her.

"Flowers hate me." she answered and snooze again.

"Allergy? On what?"

"I'd like to know, too." she said after another snooze.

"Go home." Grissom said .

"No, I'm fine. I can work." she tried to assure him.

"It's not a favor, Sara. You could contaminate the evidence." Sara looked at him in disbelief for a while and wanted to protest. Then she admitted that Grissom was right.

"Fine. See you later." she said and left.

An hour later, everyone was working hard. Greg got a blood sample and he was trying to find a match in database. Grissom and Catherine were processing victim's clothes, doctor Robbins was preparing autopsy and Nick and Warrick had a robbery in a jewelery store. Luckily, nobody was hurt, because the shop was closed. The owner was away, taking new stuff. When he returned, he found the door broken and empty show cases. He didn't hesitate and called the police. Warrick was whistling when he came into the shop with the flashlight.

"That's what I call a real mess." he said and looked around. Glass was all over the floor.

"What do you think? Junkie hasn't money for another dose?" said Nick.

"Maybe, but I'm not sure if anyone would buy it." Warrick doubted . Then he saw that among all the glass on the floor was a picture, which was once decorating the wall.

"That's weird. Why would anyone throw down only one picture and leave the others hanging?" Warrick thought loud. Meanwhile Nick found broken glassy paper-weight.

"How can you break paper-weight?" Nick asked .

"You drop it on something hard. And definitely weren't those show cases." Nick packed it and Warrick looked under the show cases, which used to contain expensive jewels. Like everywhere on the floor, even in there was glass. But when he checked there with the flashlight he saw something bright. He reached for it with his gloved hand and brought out a knife with wooden handle. There was blood on the blade. They packed it too.

"Looks like fight with an accomplish." said Warrick.

"Right here? I don't know. Maybe." said Nick. "But we definitely got two offenders."

They didn't find anything more important then this bloodied knife. All the evidence was in a box which they put in the trunk of their car. Then they headed back to lab.

Meanwhile doctor Robbins was opening victim's chest. He looked inside, then quickly stepped away and reached the phone.

Greg put the blood sample under the microscope. He looked down at it and the color left his face.

In another lab rang Grissom's phone. He answered, listened for a while and then hang up with frightened eyes. Catherine was watching him, confused. Grissom dialed sheriff's number.

"We need to evacuate the building!" he screamed in the phone .


	2. Chapter 2

**Author's note: **I forgot mention that this story is set somewhere during season 4 or 5 and Greggie is still lab rat.

Thank you guys for wonderful reviews. I was very touched. Thank you.

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Nick and Warrick were coming back to the lab with the trunk of their car full of evidence. When they reached the parking lot, they saw a lot of people there. They stopped near the crowd and went find out what happened. Both recognized the LVPD employees. That had only one reason. Evacuation. They both remembered when this last happened. They came near the group of people in blue coats.

"What's up?" Nick. asked "I hope not another explosion."

"No. But I'm not sure if this is better." Archie answered. "The body from reception had some virus. Whole building's closed. Catherine, Grissom, Greg and doctor Robbins are inside in quarantine and nobody can go there."

"Quarantine?" Nick couldn't believe it and looked at Warrick. But he was standing with his back at the group and he dialed his phone.

Second later, Catherine's mobile rang. She looked at caller ID, turned on the speaker and put the phone on the table to let the others hear the conversation.

"How you four doing there?" Warrick's voice was heard from the phone.

"Three. Al had to stay in autopsy room." Grissom answered his question.

"I don't envy him . What happened, anyway?"

"Doc didn't like the morning DB's lungs." Catherine said this time.

"I heard something about virus."

"Yeah. Greg said that it's legio...ehm?" she looked at Greg, who was sitting in an armchair, starring at nothing. He looked back at her and sighed.

"Legonella pneumophola. It has two forms. One is the Pontiac fever, like Pontiac in Michigan. Incubation period is around 36 hours and it looks like bad flu with fever. It lasts two to five days and cures itself without medication. Another form is legionelosis, or legionnaire fever. Symptoms appear after two to ten days. It's lung infection but it affects also liver, kidneys, brain and digestion. Who has it has fever, doesn't react usual antibiotics, is confused, motory's affected. Quarter of patients ends up in ICU. Treatment is difficult, because it can be easily replaced by pneumonia. Antibiotics such as erythromycin, ryphampicin or tetracyclin help, but even those work until third day. And if doctor don't recognized it till fourth day, it's too late for treatment and many patients die seventh day. Our dead guy had obviously that worse form." Greg said impassively.

"Which doesn't mean that someone caught it." Grissom tried to encourage him.

"For how long you're locked in there?" Warrick asked.

"Two days, three maximum." Catherine answered .

"And what can we do?" Warrick wanted to help them somehow , because those people were they were his friends and they were in peril .

"Try to find out who the dead one was. And how he got infected." said Grissom.

"OK. Hold on there, guys." said Warrick and hanged up.

"Have you ever heard about legionnaire fever?" Warrick asked Nick.

"Just a bit. How can we help?" he answered.

"We can try to state victim's ID."

"I could help you with that." said Jacqui behind them. "Before we were rushed out I found a match. I wrote down a name but I didn't have time for the address." she showed them the black letters on her hand.

"Jacqui, you're the best." said Nick cheerfully. She just smiled.

"I will remind you that." She looked at him .

"Samuel Darpano" read Warrick loud. "Okay, we got a name. How we find out _who _he was?"

"I have no idea."

"We should let Sara know. I'll tell you what Greg said about the disease, on the way." Warrick motioned to the car.

Grissom sat at the table, doing paper-work necessary for closing the lab, when Catherine came to him.

"What's wrong with him?" she whispered and pointed behind her shoulder to Greg. Grissom looked at him. Since Greg sat in the armchair he didn't move. He answered her silently.

"This virus is treated in biohazard suits in secured labs. It transfers easily. Especially when you're in contact with blood. And he knows it very well."

"You mean we really could have gotten infected?" Catherine asked. She was a little scared. Even after Greg's speech she didn't believe the fact their situation was serious. But Grissom's words assured her that they really were in a big trouble.

"I don't think so. We almost haven't touched victim's clothing and if we did , we had gloves. On the top, the blood was dry and soaked into cloth."

"And what if it was fresh? Just a little , invisible drop of fresh blood that we touched …?" Catherine asked . Grissom knew, what she was thinking about.

"I don't believe, that anyone among us is in the tinniest danger." he answered, looking right into her eyes. Catherine nodded and went to pour herself some coffee. Grissom watched both of his colleagues for awhile. Greg finally moved and joined Catherine. She smiled at him and said something Grissom didn't hear. She handed him a cup and went to call Lindsey. She had to explain to her daughter why she won't be home for a couple days. Grissom again thought about what he just said. He wasn't a liar, but his last sentence wasn't quite the truth.

Nick called Sara while Warrick was driving. It rang three times before she answered.

"Hallo?" Sara said neutrally.

"Hey, it's me. You sitting?" Nick tried to prepare her for a bad news. Sara understood and sat down.

"Yeah. Why?" she asked carefully. Nick told her what happened and what Warrick learned when he called Catherine.

"That doesn't sound good." she said after thinking at the thing she heard .

"Let's hope it's gonna be ok. We need to think up how to find out as much as we can about that guy. Do you know the bistro opposite the airport?"

"Sure."

"Great. We'll be there." Nick hang up.

A few minutes later Sara was sitting in her dark-green car and tried not to drive too fast. She still was thinking about the call she just had. She imagined what could happen in the next three days. She shook her head to get those thoughts out of her mind and tried to concentrate on driving. She was at the place of the meeting ,in front of the bistro, in fifteen minutes and was very lucky she didn't met any cop on the way. She rushed inside. Nick and Warrick were sitting at a big table by the wall. Except for them, there were four people, who probably came for a late lunch.

"That was fast." Warrick spoke and moved to the chair by the wall to let her sit. Sara ignored his comment.

"I got one idea on my way. According to you two, Jacqui ran out pretty fast. Maybe she didn't turn off the database." she said instead.

"I didn't thought about this." Nick replied pulling out his phone and calling Grissom.

"I'll get that!" Greg jumped up from his chair. Finally he was able to do something. He ran into the fingerprint lab. In the first moment, he was very disappointed when he didn't see the standard form with photo on the computer monitor. Then, he realized that what he's looking at is screensaver with the LVPD logo. He smiled a little and moved the mouse. Presently, the screen changed and Greg printed the information. After that, he returned to Catherine and Grissom.

"I have something. That Mr. Darpano worked as security in Pharmaceutics Company. He was fired a week ago because of..." he read the paper that was in his hands again. "...repeated breaking of work discipline. And you know what? Director of the company picked out of the company account sixty thousand dollars."


	3. Chapter 3

**AN:** Thank you all for patience. Summer job's already over and translating took me some time, too. So here is chapter 3. Hope you'll like it. And this is all by myself, so I have to tell my wonderful beta ericloca this: Sorry, Danni, but I couldn't let them wait.

* * *

**Chapter 3**

„Have you heard that?" Grissom asked Nick, who was on the other side of phone.

"Yeah. We'll go ask director few questions. What kind of company is it, anyway?"

Greg gave printed papers to Grissom, who quickly read them.

"Infectious Diseases Research Center on 120 Flamingo Road. The director names Nathaniel McRoy." said Grissom.

"Thanks. I hope it won't be closed."

"Darpano was night watchman, so someone will definitely be there." hanged up Grissom. His sight caught remote-controlled toy-car, which appeared in doors only second before Greg. Grissom raised one eyebrow and Catherine smiled.

"Looks like the good mood's back." she said.

"It was just momentary crisis." Greg waved her comment away. He sat down on the couch and drove slalom through chairs.

"You know what's funny? That the only way we can talk with Warrick, Nick or Sara is by phone. That's gonna be a bill." Greg laughed.

"City's paying." said Grissom.

"Mayor will be happy." said Catherine sarcastically. Then she turned to Greg. "Where did you get it?" she pointed to the toy.

"Archie shouldn't leave it here. He knows that I love cars. Especially those fast ones."

Catherine had to smile. He looked like big child. She reminded Lindsey and that made her to feel sad. She was working so much that she couldn't see her daughter like she wanted and now she had to be here for whole three days. She stood up and came to fridge. There wasn't much inside. Couple of yogurts, two salads, something that seemed to be frozen hamburger, sandwich and few thing, that she couldn't recognized.

"I think we'll die of hunger in here." Catherine said disappointedly.

"There's a slot-machine in the hallway." said Greg and for a tenth time drove the car around table where Grissom was working. He just bent down, annoyed, caught the toy and put it on the table next to him.

"You will get it back at the end of school year." said Grissom and came back to paperwork. But inside he laughed. _Always up for everything silly._ he thought. Greg decided to have a dinner like Catherine. But unlike Catherine he went right to the slot-machine. He returned with two sendwiches. One for Catherine.

"If you're looking for something that's not moving, don't bother yourself with fridge." said Greg and took a bite. Catherine admitted he's right and closed fridge's door.

xxxxxx

Infectious Disease Research Center was inconspicuous building with four floors. They walked through glass enter door and stopped before porter's lodge. Inside was sitting watchman.

"Good Evening. Can I help you?"

"Good Evening. We're CSIs Sidle, Stokes and Brown." said Warrick. "We want to talk with Mr. McRoy."

"I'm gonna disappoint you. He left at four. Someone's lucky." told them the watchman. He was around fifty and he definitely wasn't sport type. Nevertheless, he seemed to be warm-hearted and not thinking very much about what he's saying. That was good for them. Maybe he could give them some informations.

"Could _I_ help you?" asked watchman enthusiastically. Warrick noticed cheep detective story lying on the table and smiled.

"We're here because of Samuel Darpano, mister...? continued Warrick.

"Jack Wilson. Have Sam done something?"

"Why do you think so?" asked Sara.

"He's crunk. Bets all the time, owes to everyone. To me too. It's just hundred, but, you know, hundred now hundred then and suddenly it's a thousand."

"Where was he gambling?" said Nick.

"_Was? _He is...oh shit. Well, he wasn't gambling, he was betting. I told him he's gonna end up pretty badly if he will borrowing so much money."

"What was he betting on?" asked Warrick.

"Various things. Horse-races, football and so. Mostly, he lost and in a while he hadn't enough money to pay rent. So he borrowed money although he knew he can't return it. Then even his friends didn't want to give him money and that was usurers turn."

"Do you know them?" asked Sara.

"No, and I didn't want to. It's better don't know these guys. I've always told him 'return what you borrowed and don't bet anymore'. Once he came with arm in cast. He said he played basketball. No way. One of his 'creditors' broke it. Other day he had black eye or broken lip."

"Was he beaten often?" asked Nick this time.

"Last time almost every day. You know, he lost everything he had and lived from money which weren't his. Someone gave him money so he could pay his rent, but he had to return twice more. So he came to someone else to get money for repay and again. People say 'only good about dead ones' but rumors were he was thief. At first I thought it's nothing, but then I saw his rolex watch and few weeks later he wanted make peace with his ex by ring. And it wasn't some cheep trinket. It seemed pretty expensive. Golden with shiny stone in the middle. He couldn't afford this from night watchman wage."

"So it was probably truth." said Nick half for himself. Watchman hesitated.

"You know, I don't want you to think that Sam was total mess. Better, who left even his high-school love. Sam wasn't perfect, but he was a good guy though."

"We don't doubt it. Don't you know where did he live?" Sara wanted to know.

"Yeah, sure, in a minute." he turned to computer. He looked through employees' files for a moment. Then he wrote something on a piece of paper and turned back to CSIs.

"I can't print out his personal file without warrant. But I can give you his address." he said and gave them small paper. Sara took it and looked at it.

"Thank you, Mr. Wilson. You helped us a lot." said Warrick and they all came back to the car.

"And now what?" asked Nick, when he sat at the passenger seat. Sara was sitting in the back and Warrick was driving.

"I can't get out of my head what Wilson said. That Darpano was probably thief. If you owe someone, you wouldn't waste you loot on watch or ring for ex-wife. Especially when it's matter of life and death." said Sara.

"Maybe he kept trophies." said Nick.

"And was stabbed to death same day someone pilfered jewellery." added Warrick. At that moment he as well as Nick realized that they still have evidence from this case in the trunk. Including bloodied knife.

"Oh shit!" cursed Nick.

"What's up?" asked Sara from behind. She didn't know anything about their case.¨

"This afternoon we were sent to investigate robbery. We found knife with blood on its blade. Quite a strange accident, don't you think?" answered Nick.

"Lab is for now in warehouse on Eastern Avenue. Discarded equipment was brought out. We should let that blood compare." said Sara.

"But this time by someone in biohazard suit." said Warrick and started engine.

Twenty minutes later, two men in chemical suits were waiting for them near big white van with microscope, few machines and lot of beakers and test tubes inside. CSIs stopped next to van. One man in suit approached their car and indicated to not go out or pull down windows.

_Little late when we already went through half city _thought Sara.

"Good evening. I'm commander of chemical unit of fire department. Where's that contaminated stuff?" introduced himself the man.

"_Maybe_ contaminated. Back in the trunk. The knife is in evidence bag and everything's locked in a box. Please, be careful with those things. We will already have a hard time to make judge to accept this evidence." said Nick.

"Don't worry. What were you doing with the knife?" Commander waved to his colleague and pointed at the trunk.

"I've picked it up and bagged, that's all. Gloves are in box, too." said Warrick. Meanwhile second firefighter took box to the van.

"It should be ok. I'll be right back. Wait here." said commander and went into van. Warrick looked at his watch. It was 9:15 pm.

"I wonder how our prisoners are doing." thought Nick aloud.

"Grissom got migraine, Catherine's angry and Greg's making them crazy." answered him Sara without hesitating.

"I'm not so sure. When I was talking with them, Greg was pretty out of it." disagreed Warrick.

"Greg's always out of everything." laughed Nick.

"Not like this. He sounded like...I don't know. Defeated? Definitely not okay."

Neither Nick nor Sara said anything after that. They didn't know what. Just silently hoped that their four friends will be alright and in three days this all will be another funny story. Actually, it was almost only two days. Their thoughts were interrupted forty-five minutes later by the knock on Nick's window. It was that firefighter. Mask of his suit was down and he was smiling.

"You can go out. Gloves and handle are clear. There was legionella in blood, but that doesn't matter. You didn't touch it. And by the way, we compared it with your popular victim's blood and it matches. We didn't touched other evidence and locked your box again. Without the knife, of course. You'll get it after we clear it."

They thanked him and white van left after a while. It was already darkness outside.

"Could we check victim-thief's apartment tomorrow?" asked Sara when she saw what time is.

"Yeah, we could. I guess you want ride to your car, don't you?" said Warrick.

"That would be nice." grinned Sara at both men and they left.

xxxxxxx

Grissom decided that when he's stucked here, he can finish all that paperwork, which should have been done week ago. But like he explained to director, there were twelve cases this week, five of it were murders. There was no time for paperwork. And now he had so much time he didn't know what to do with it. He took a deep breath and rushed on first file. When he lifted his head up again after some time, he noticed clock at the wall. _That's really already almost midnight?_ he wondered. He stood up and walked through the hallway. He stopped in the door of break room. Catherine was sleeping on one sofa and Greg on the other. He was listening iPod. _How can he sleep in such a noise?_ Grissom turned off the player and put it on the table nearby. Then he returned to his files.


	4. Chapter 4

**Note: I'm sorry it took me so long to update. I know I promised some of you guys to update in May but I was kinda busy with school and stuff, so sorry again. **

**I have to thank to my friend AnnaMorrison for huge help. I'm not native English speaker and this story is originally written in my native language - Czech. I got stuck in translating this and couldn't move on. She translated it for me (and I corrected it a bit). And I also please if there are some mistakes, don't be rude, I'm still learning.**

**And I also noticed that I forget to mention that I don't own the characters. **

* * *

Chapter 4

Catherine woke up in the break room. It took her a while to recognise what she was doing here. She got up and went for a cup of coffee. Greg was still sleeping on the other sofa. She didnť want to disturb him so she went in the corridor. She heard a noise in the lab where she was processing Sam Darpano's clothes yesterday. She went there and saw Gil scanning trousers of the dead man.

„Are you mad? What are you doing?" she shouted at him.

„I'm trying to solve a case," said Grissom absolutelly calmly.

„You won't succeed in solving a case when you'll be in the hospital' You must be totally insane," Catherine fretted.

„Sara called. It seems that our victim robbed the goldsmithy but I haven't found anything on him."

„He could put everything into some bag and hide it."

But Grissom shook his head. „No. He was stabbed during the robbery. And more, Sara said that he kept stoling something for himself. And there's not even a small grit."

„Maybe there was someone quicker and Darpano interrupted him," Catherine thought.

„Uh… maybe. But something still doesn't match to me," said Grissom and started to think for a while.

„Did you even sleep?" Catherine asked and looked at him asquint. Gil didn't answer her but his face showed that he was awake whole night.

„Has something remained?" he pointed to the cup in her hands.

„No. You must make something more." Grissom walked around her but he turned around in the half of his way.

„It seems that someone overtook me," he said.

„Sleeping Beauty is awake?" Catherine smiled. Greg looked at her offendedly.

„You fell asleep first so logically you woke up first," he said and left the room.

„So his good mood is gone again?" Catherine asked Grissom. He just shrugged. Who can make Greg out?

* * *

The provisional lab didn't please the techs very much. Instead of separated rooms which were quite quiet whey got one big hall with old machines. Fortunately, it was possible to move the dead bodies to hospital's morgue. Nick was sitting by one desk and in front of him were unfolded photos of stolen jewelry. The owner of the shop gave them to the police because without their confirmation the insurance company wouldn't pay him the damage. Warrick and Sara have just returned from the scrutiny in victim's house. They brough a bag full of jewels which was missed definitely missed by someone.

„Having fun?" asked Warrick as he and Sara joined Nick.

„Nothing's bette than this. How about you?"

„He was really a collector. He had a treasure in every shelf. But nothing what would guide us to his accomplice," Sara said as she was looking at a picture of diamond neckless which looked like just for a princess.

„Thirty little diamonds and five brilliants. I would like it," Sara flipped over the neckless.

„Wait, I've seen this before…" Nick started to browse the registration book. „Here it is. If it's the same, and according to the book it is… it was bought one day before the robbery for 60 thousand dollars by…" Nick stopped and turned the book to allow his colleagues to read the name.

„Wow," Sara raised her eyebrow, „Mr. McRoy has to tell us a very long story."

* * *

Lincoln's Street was in the most expensive discrict of Las Vegas. House number 56 perfecty filled ideas of a dream home. Fence made of pales, white facade, red roof, mowed green grass and beside flowerbeds was a slide for children. They rang and maybe thirty-eight years old blonde with short hair opened the door. She looked to be surprised when she saw CSI's working vests.

„You are Mrs. McRoy?" Warrick asked.

„Yes. Has something happened?"

„We need to speak with your husband." The woman smiled awry.

„You're not alone in that. He's not here."

„And do you know when he'll back? Or where we could find him?" asked Sara. Mrs. McRoy turned around. By the kitchen table a boy around nine years was drawing. She thought that he doesnť listen to them, so she spoke again.

„Nath was overcame by middle-age crissis and run away with his secretary. I knew he had an affair with her but I've never believed he could left his own son because of some hydroperoxide blonde. I have no idea where he might be, but when you find him, tell him not to come back," she said angrily and slammed the door shut. The trio of CSIs was absolutely shocked for few seconds.

„That's exactly what I call lovelorn woman," said Nick.

Just when they turned to leave the door were opened again. That little boy stand there and he was still looking back irrosolutely.

„I know where daddy is. He sent me a letter. Mom doesn't know, I wasn't supposed to tell her," the boy whispered and pulled an envelope out of his pocket. Nick took it. The writing was folded many times and read again and again. The child obviously missed his dad very much. The letter was adressed straightly to little Tommy, not to Mrs. McRoy. And in the left upper corner was a logo of the Sphere hotel.

* * *

„I'm bored," said Greg from his place by the table and stretched his arms. Grissom, who was sitting by the same table and reading old magazines about criminology gave him the confiscated car. Greg took it and began to open and close driver's doors.

„Perhabs I would like to dig in some mess. I really don't know what to do. Would you believe me when I say that I miss the work?"

„Yes, we would." Grissom admitted.

„When I travel with Lindsey on a long journey in the car, we play word match." said Catherine, who was switching the canals in the TV just to realise that nothing is in it.

„Well, I won't risk it with you two." Greg laughed. In that moment, a reporter showed up in the screen and talked about quarantine in the lab.

„According to police sources, yesterday in the afternoon a man died in LVPD building. During the investigation was found out that the man was infected with the Legionella virus and the building was evacuated and closed. Four employees stay there in quarantine. People, who were in the building in the same time are in no danger…"

* * *

A receptionist took them to Mr. McRoy's room. They knocked on his door, but nobody answered. Other guests started to watch them curiously so the reception clerk rather used the spare key. When the CSIs entered the room, they found McRoy sitting on the floor leaning against the bed. He held a bottle of Scottish Whisky with minor portion in it and was full as a goog.

„Well… that's brilliant!" said Warrick as he looked at the drunk man.

„I don't think he's gonna tell us anything." thought Sara loudly.

„Just ask if you want." said Mr. McRoy and took a big swig.

„All right. Did you buy a diamond necklace in Todd Dickens's jewelry on 16th October?"

„Yeah. Patty was enthusiastic about it. For a while."

„Patty? Does she have a surname?" asked Nick.

„Patty Woods."

„And where is she now?" asked Sara, because there was no woman in the room.

„Gone. She took my money, credit cards and she disappeared. This is what she left me for a keepsake." said McRoy and took a necklace out of his pocket. Sara took it.

„Could we borrow it?" she asked.

„Of course you could. What would I do with it?"

„What do you know about Samuel Darpano," continued Warrick. The director of the research institute sobered up immediately.

„The quarantine that they talked about in the news… he was the dead one, wasn't he? That's why he didn't come for the money."

„For what money?" asked Nick

„He stole an ampoule in my company and said that he'll return it if he gets 60.000 dollars. He sent me a message, when and where I should bring it but he never came. Patty knew about it. She was the one, who convinced me to buy this for that money and run away with her. Oh, don't look at me like this, I know that was a stupid idea."

_Yes that__ was,_ thought Sara, who meanwhile wrote a receipt for the jewelry they had to confiscate for awhile.

„You can come for the necklace in a few days." she said and they all left.

„Oh, he's an idiot. Poor kid." Nick fretted when they left the hotel.

„You can't do anything. I just wonder why the Beauty didn't pack this noble gift, too." said Warrick.

* * *

„No wonder she didn't take it." said Hodges, looking over the necklace. „If I'd find out that there are zircons instead diamonds…"

„It's spurious?" Sara interrupted him curiously.

„No, it's not. Zircon is a semi-precious stone and is in jewels, too. But it isn't so rare. It's even from carbon, just like a diamond. How much did he pay for it?"

„Sixty thousands. Much money for a refined stone." said Warrick. „Do you think that Patty knew what he's buying?"

**To be continued....**

_Thanks for reading. I hope this time updating won't take me so long. Reviews are appreciated :-)_


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